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MoF: Arul Kanda offered RM5 mil salary for six months' work

KUALA LUMPUR (July 31): Arul Kanda Kandasamy, the former chief of troubled 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), was offered a RM5 million salary package for a six-month period from January to June this year. Half of that or RM2.5 million had been advanced to him, according to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.

"The contract to pay the remuneration was signed by none other than the former Finance Minister," Lim said in the Parliament today, referring to Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Lim's press officer, however, later clarified that the contract was signed off by former treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Irwan Serigar, while Najib approved it.

According to Lim, the balance RM2.5 million was supposed to be paid after June 30, 2018. "Luckily there was a change in government. Otherwise he would have pocketed the balance," he added.

Arul was the third president and chief executive officer of 1MDB, a brainchild of Najib that had racked up debts of about RM50 billion.

On June 29, The Edge reported that 1MDB, which is wholly owned by the Minister of Finance Inc, sacked Arul Kanda two days before the end of his garden leave on June 30, on grounds of dereliction of duties.